PNG auditor general guilty of misconduct

A Papua New Guinea leadership tribunal has found the Auditor-General Mark Wani guilty of 33 counts of misconduct in office.

Wani was specifically charged with 11 counts of misconduct in office, four counts of failing to submit annual statements to the Ombudsman Commission and nine counts each for using his office for personal gain and misappropriating public money.

He was also found to have benefitted from unlawful entitlements and excessive allowances totalling more than 76-thousand US dollars.

Wani committed the acts between February 1998 and April this year.

In passing the judgement, Justice Nicholas Kirriwom said systematic corruption was widespread and prisons were getting overcrowded.

He said the situation is made worse when leaders are setting bad examples by breaking the law themselves.